God’s Great Gift

John 3:16

December 25, 2010

This morning we look at a text, that none of you needed me to read to you. It is very well the first you ever learned.

And as I began to contemplate what to preach on this Christmas morning,

It was this verse that rang in my head.

At Christmas time we rightly look upon the manger

And dwell upon those near impossible words,

“The word became flesh and dwelt among us”.

It is absolutely mind boggling to try and understand the incarnation.

It is absolutely mind boggling to try and rationalize how it occurred.

How can Jesus be fully God and fully man?

How can two natures be one, and yet two?

Even theologians for centuries have wrestled with the concept.

Eventually we have to strike it all up to the transcendence of God.

This is just another concept on that long list of things

That God knows, that I cannot.

For His thoughts are not my thoughts, and His ways are not my ways.

The incarnation is a mystery.

However, not all of it is mysterious.

In fact, part of the incarnation is quite clear.

And that part is the “WHY” of the incarnation.

While we may never fully grasp the concept of God becoming flesh,

The simple reasoning as to why He did has always been plainly stated.

And that reason is LOVE

And this morning as we meet for Christmas,

I just want to remind you of this great love of God.

A love so strong that it conceived

And then performed the miracle of the incarnation.

Now, as is true in all study of God’s word, no text stands alone, and every one must be put in context.

You are aware that in John 3

Jesus is in the middle of a nighttime conversation.

Nicodemus came under covering of darkness (a fact that Jesus will exploit later in the text) and Nicodemus came with bad theology.

(2) “Rabbi we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Nicodemus had a faulty mindset that all Israel needed was a good teacher. (That after all is probably why he was a Pharisee)

Jesus absolutely overturned this notion in verse 3.

(3) “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Man didn’t need to be “tweaked”,

Man needed to be “scrapped” and started over.

There was and is nothing salvageable in mankind.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:10-12 “as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."

Mankind must be “born again”

But as you remember, this concept was inconceivable to Nicodemus.

(4) “Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

Even after Jesus did some explaining, Nicodemus was still in the dark.

(9) “Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”

And don’t be too hard on Nicodemus,

True salvation has always been hard for man to swallow.

Man has always had difficulty conceiving of a salvation

Where man is powerless to do anything,

But must throw himself at the mercy of God.

Even when the rich young ruler went away sad

And Jesus revealed that it is easier for a camel

To go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.

It was the disciples who said, “Then who can be saved?”

To which Jesus responded:

Matthew 19:26 “And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Man has always had difficulty conceiving of a salvation

That cannot be attained by their own efforts.

Yet true salvation, according to Jesus, is the total work of God.

Man cannot help, God must do it all.

And Jesus first introduced the MEANS of this salvation in verse 14.

(14-15) "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”

Jesus revealed to Nicodemus that salvation

Would be attained through the death of the Son of Man,

And that man would partake of that salvation,

Not through strong effort, but through faith.

And all this seems like a cozy plan, except for one thing.

WHAT WOULD POSSESS THE SON OF MAN TO ALLOW HIMSELF TO BE LIFTED UP?

WHY WOULD GOD DO SUCH A THING?

And then enters John 3:16

It is a verse that explains the “why” of salvation.

It is a verse that explains the “why” of the incarnation.

It is a verse that explains the “why” of the crucifixion.

And the “why” is simply LOVE.

And this morning I just want to take a close and thoughtful look

At the love of God as it is depicted in this famous verse.

#1 THE AUTHOR OF LOVE

“For GOD”

And please don’t read on until you take a moment

To comprehend exactly who did the loving here.

This verse does not begin by saying, “For man was so broken that God…”

Man did not initiate this salvation, God did.

It was God who was first at work.

A natural man doesn’t even want salvation, let alone seek it.

Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

Man didn’t want God, man wanted sin.

And that goes for you as well.

If God hadn’t intervened,

You would have never even wanted what He had to offer.

Apart from God you could not have come,

And apart from God you would not have come.

God set the whole thing in motion.

And don’t miss out on the fact that He is God.

The author of love is not some insignificant being.

We are talking about the Creator of the universe.

We are talking about the absolute supreme Power.

The entire universe bends to His will.

When He told light to come, light had to come from somewhere.

When He told land to appear, land had to arrive.

When He told fish to swim, they had better do it.

It didn’t matter “how” it happened, but it happened

Because the supreme authority of all things told it to.

Furthermore He is the judge of all the universe.

All things answer to Him.

And if anything or anyone dares to stand against His decrees,

All He has to do is blink, and that small piece of obstinance

Is forever removed from existence.

HE IS GOD

It is our mission to find out what He wants.

It is our mission to please Him.

It is our mission to get to Him.

And yet, even though He is the supreme authority,

It was not us, but He who originated salvation.

The Almighty, Infinite God is the One we are dealing with.

He is the Author of Love

#2 THE EXPRESSION OF LOVE

“For God SO LOVED”

And that too is a mind-blowing concept.

Because He is God, He has the right to promote and display

Any emotion He desires.

He could choose vengeance, or deception, or wrath.

He had the right to be whatever He wanted,

And yet He, with no input from us, DETERMINED TO EXPRESS LOVE.

While false gods throughout the world demonstrate

“anger” or “hunger” or “rain” or “wind”

THE God demonstrates love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

THE God could have done whatever He wanted

And forced us to bend to His will, and yet He chose to express love.

And what did He choose to love?

#3 THE OBJECT OF LOVE

“For God so loved THE WORLD”

And there is a notion for you.

If it had been us, we would have set our affection upon ourselves.

And yet God did the opposite.

God chose to love the world.

And this is especially mind-boggling,

Especially when you consider how unworthy the world was of love.

All mankind had ever done was disregard God.

Adam & Eve broke the only command they had.

Cain killed Abel

Lamech started polygamy and killed a man and a boy.

And finally by the days of Noah, this was God’s evaluation of “the world”

Genesis 6:5-6 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”

And man hasn’t changed much over the years.

Even as we read earlier out of Romans,

“there is none who does good, not even one.”

And yet it was this wicked, obstinate, disobedient, God rejecting world

That God chose to love.

God loved those who cursed Him.

God chose to express His love to a wicked carnal world

That had done everything they could to reject His right to be God.

And what did this love look like?

#4 THE EVIDENCE OF LOVE

“For God so loved the world THAT HE GAVE…”

Does this strike anyone else as odd?

Why should He give?

He did nothing wrong.

Why should He offer a ransom?

He wasn’t the offender.

Because love that does not give is not love.

Amy Carmichael said: “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”

1 John 3:16-17 “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

God’s love is not unverifiable.

God’s love is not invisible.

God didn’t just say, “I love you” and leave it at that.

God proved His love by giving.

What did He give?

#5 THE EXTENT OF LOVE

“For God so loved the world that He gave HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON,”

In Scripture we are told that love is MEASURABLE.

Remember the woman at Jesus feet?

Luke 7:44-47 “Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. "You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. "You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. "For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little."

We know the woman loved more than Simon

Because she gave more than Simon.

Love is measured by giving, and if that is true,

Then the depth of God’s love can never be questioned.

For God did not just give water, or even and alabaster vile of perfume.

God gave “His only begotten Son”

God’s love is absolutely priceless.

Romans 5:6-8 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 John 4:9-10 “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

God demonstrated love by giving, and He gave no small gift.

God gave His Son.

He gave Him first into exile, and then into death.

Charles Spurgeon said:

“If you desire to see the love of God in this great procedure you must consider how He gave His Son. He did not give His Son, as you might do, to some profession in the pursuit of which you might still enjoy his company; but He gave His Son to exile among men. He sent Him down to yonder manger, untied with a perfect manhood, which at the first was in an infant’s form. There He slept, where horned oxen fed! The Lord God sent the heir of all things to toil in a carpenter’s shop: to drive the nail, and push the plane, and use the saw. He sent Him down amongst scribes and Pharisees, whose cunning eyes watched Him, and whose cruel tongues scourged Him with base slanders. He sent Him down to hunger, and thirst, amid poverty so dire that He had not where to lay His head. He sent Him down to the scourging and the crowning with thorns, to the giving of His back to the smiters and His cheeks to those that plucked off the hair. At length He gave Him up to death – a felon’s death, the death of the crucified. Behold that cross and see the anguish of Him that dies upon it, and mark how the Father has so given Him, that He hides His face from Him, and seems as if He would not own Him! “Lama sabachthani” tells us how fully God gave His Son to ransom the souls of the sinful. He gave Him to be made a curse for us; gave Him that He might die “the just for the unjust to bring us to God.”

(Spurgeon, C.H. “The Treasury of The New Testament” Volume II St. Luke XV. 8 to Romans III. 25 [Marshall, Morgan & Scott, Limited; Edinburgh, London] pg. 283)

God’s love is indeed deep, God’s love is indeed wide.

God’s love gave, and gave His only begotten Son

WHY?

#6 THE SCOPE OF LOVE

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, THAT WHOEVER”

It is truly one of our favorite concepts of Scripture,

And that is that God’s love comes absolutely without limit.

We sing the song, “Whosoever, surely meaneth me”

Romans 10:13 “for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

Jesus said:

John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

God holds absolutely no favoritism.

God holds absolutely no partiality.

God holds absolutely no prejudice.

In fact, the use of “the world” earlier

Was shattering to the prejudice of the Jews.

It was to remind their Jewish readers that the gospel wasn’t just for them.

It was to remind them that “whoever would” could come.

You may even remember the fight in the early church

As to whether or not Gentiles could really be saved.

But after God sent Peter to Cornelius, this was his response:

Acts 10:34-35 “Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”

God’s love reaches to whoever, and they all have the opportunity.

#7 THE EXPECTATION OF LOVE

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever BELIEVES IN HIM”

Today in the church world if you throw out the word “Limited Atonement” people instantly get in an uproar.

How can you say the atonement of Jesus is limited?

Because Scripture says it is.

Even you believe the atonement is limited, for right here it says that the atonement is limited to who?

To “whoever believes in Him”

That does not diminish the scope of God’s love,

But it does indicate that God’s love comes with expectation.

God love comes expecting the recipients of His love to believe.

And the word “believes” means far more

Than to ascribe intellectual ascent.

The word here means to trust.

· It is a word that encompasses obedience to God’s commands.

· It is a word that encompasses endurance in God’s work.

· It is a word that ultimately points to love of God in return.

Mark 12:28-34 “One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.”

Jesus revealed the main objective of salvation

And that is that you would love God.

And that is still the expectation of God’s love.

He loved so much that He sent His Son,

With the expectation that you would love in return.

And there is good reason why you should.

#8 THE EFFECT OF LOVE

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him SHALL NOT PERISH,”

This is an absolutely amazing effect of God’s love toward us.

As we have already said man is born sinful,

And absolutely deserving of destruction in hell.

We inherited a sin nature from our father Adam,

And very soon we followed in his footsteps.

And the wages of that sin is death.

And yet God loved us enough to send His son,

That His Son could pay the penalty for that sin.

And that all those who believe in the Son could be forgiven.

God’s love brought about forgiveness from the sin

That would send each and every one of us to hell for all eternity.

Psalms 103:10-14 “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

It is the tremendous love of God

That comes with the effect on our lives of forgiveness.

But that is not all

#9 THE BONUS OF LOVE

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.”

It’s one thing to be called forgiven and to escape the sentence of hell,

BUT THIS IS EVEN BETTER.

Now not only are we no longer called enemies,

But we are actually called sons.

Not only do we skip the sentence of hell,

But we gain an invitation to heaven.

And more than just heaven it is “life”

Eternal life is not just what you get when you die,

It is what you get when you believe.

It is what picks you up out of your sinful lifestyle

And allows you to walk in holiness

AND IT IS ALL A BENEFIT OF LOVE.

When you sit back and try to soak it all in, it is really too much to fathom.

For here in this verse we learn

That even when He didn’t have to,

The God of the universe chose to exercise love,

And love to such degree that He would give His only begotten Son

To pay the penalty for sinners

Gaining them forgiveness and eternal life

And all of this is free to those

Who will simply believe in Christ and love Him in return.

I don’t know how Christmas works.

I don’t know how God entered the womb.

I don’t know how the incarnation occurred.

BUT I DO KNOW WHY.

Christmas exists because of the love of God,

And today I simply invite you to bask in that love with me.

1 John 4:19 “We love, because He first loved us.”